Knight in Modern

[Aeradom]

Hello all!

First off, I'd like to thank all of you for taking the time to read this post. It's been quite a while for me since I last played MTG (stopped playing somewhere between Conflux and Alara Reborn). The reason for my renewed interest is that at my new place of employment, some of my friends there use their lunch break to play some Magic.

The most recent experience I had with Magic, was the downloadable game that came out recently. being a Plains-guy, I actually bought the Knights DLC and really enjoyed playing it. So I decided to go with that concept and build a Knights beatdown deck.

As far as formats go, I suppose this is modern. To be honest though, I'm just really looking to use cards from the 10th Edition/Shadowmoore-Lorwyn Block on. The only reason is for this sentimentality; those are the blocks that I started with. If you do have suggestion for a card or two, that is further back, I would consider it though.

In addition, I really didn't want to spend like crazy on the deck, which is why I excluded cards like Hero of Blade-hold. So while I'll certainly welcome any suggestion regardless of price, it probably wont be in my starting deck but will be something I will consider upgrading to at a later point. At present, I estimate the deck to be 80$ and maybe I could go a little higher, but probably my hard cap is at 100$

Any comments, ideas or criticisms would be greatly appreciated.

Creature x24:
4x Student of Warfare
4x Accorder Paladin
4x Spectral Rider
4x Knight Exemplar
4x Mirran Crusader
4x Kinsbaile Cavalier

Other Spells x16:
4x Path to Exile
4x Honor of the Pure
4x Prison Term
4x Oblivion Ring

Land x20:
x20 Plains

[baprice93]

i'd strongly recommend Hero of Bladehold. she's a knight and she does stuff. gets dudes everytime she attacks and has Battle Cry. also silverblade paladin. and i've always been taught to stay away from a deck of all 4 ofs becasue it messes with the tempo. i was taught that 4ofs are crucials, 3 ofs and game changers, 2ofs are finishers, and then there are spicy 1ofs that aren't needed to play/win, but can get there and can be useful when played. i'd recommend this list for you

3 Hero of Bladehold
4 Sliverblade Paladin
3 Kinsbaile Cavalier
3 Knight Exemplar
4 Student of Warfare
3 Mirran Crusader
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Path to Exile
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Prison Term
2 Tectonic Edge
20 Plains.

I say Champion of the Parish because, while he's not a knight, he will get bigger whenever you drop another creature, with the exception of Kinsbaile Cavalier, and is awesome once he gets a few counters on him. I hope this helps!

[Nick 30075]

That curve looks really awkward. Maybe Knight of the White Orchid to fix that?

[Aeradom]

Darn it I misspelled Hero of Bladehold! Oh well...

In any event, I do agree that she would be a great edition to the deck. And I'm not sure what the price is of the deck, with going with the odd number route, so I'll check it out to see how it affects it. Same goes with Champion of the Parish. It was another great card that I had seen when looking at just building a soldier deck, but it obviously would be good in this one.

I actually did at one point consider throwing in Silverblade Paladin though. But after play testing, it seemed like that by turn 5 or 6, I'll have a Kinsbaile Cavalier and that would be about the right time as I'd have my small army ready to make a deathblow run. And the advantage of Kinsbaile is that it does it to all. It just seemed redundant to have two things with double strike because (i think) they would overlap.

But since you kept it Kinsbaile Cavalier, I suppose that's a mute point. I did see that you took out Accorder Paladin and Spectral Rider. I'm sort of curious though why you did that? I feel like it may offset the tempo of getting my forces going by replacing a couple of 2 cost creatures with 3 cost ones. Also, I like the idea of Accorder's Battle Cry building on everything else, and with Spectral Rider, I have a creature with intimidate and attack early.

Ideally, i'd like to have the game finished up in less than 10 turns. Using my creatures to build off themselves with Battlecry, Kinsbaile double strike etc. to have an overwhelming force. And should the opponent throw up some resistance, I knock them out with one of my spells.

And finally, I really need to work on the numbering thing. It's something I really need to work on, and I never seem to get to it. But I'll try to keep that point in mind. Thanks again for the well thought out advice, and I hope you didn't take anything I said as combative, just wanted to get things thought out and see what your line of thinking was and such.

Edit: Eek! Someone replied wwhile I was replying. Really need to learn to check that such. And concerning the worry about the mana curve, it actually hasn't been too bad in testing. Partially because I dont have a card over four mana. I generally start with 2 mana in hand, and as long as I get another by around turn 3 or 4 at the latest, it generally works out well.

Another thing, is that when the opposite happends and I get like 4 mana, I've actually found that due to the quick nature of the deck getting off the ground, I can Recover from the slow start as long as the deck doesn't decide to mess with me.

I'm off though to play test the suggested build though, but i'll check back in a little bit.

Edit Edit: Actually, what is a good curve to shoot for?

[baprice93]

there is a lot of white run in modren from what i've seen and affinity is one of the best decks in the formant so intimidate wouldn't do much most of the time. while i didn't suggest another 2 drop, i did give you another 1 drop in the champion and you can drop Honor of the Pure on T2 or save the mana for an early path if they drop something eary that is key to their deck. once you can get bladhold, she covers the Battle Cry that Accorder Paladin gives, but she is harder to kill. a simple chump block or got shot and Accorder Paladin is toast. i believe the price of champion is now lowere that what is says if you hover the cursor over it. i'm debating the cavelier but it seems win more to me because you should already have what you need to win on turn 4 or 5, especially with bladehold. that being said, silverblade would be the better choice because if he and bladehold are both online, it's game over in 2 or 3 turns. if you want a 2 drop, gather the townsfolk works really well with champion and Knight of the White Orchid helps a bit with ramp, getting things out a turn sooner. that is my thought process behind the deck. i've not tested with modern, but i do play humans in standard. your play style and the way you build your board might be completely different than mine so go with what you think fits you the best. the list i presented is above your price, but you can easily trade for stuff. plus with scars phasing out in october, Mirran Crusader will go down. not sure if bladehold will though. she's almost broken.

[Master Moja]

Another knight that is really fun that doesn't see enough play is Knight of the Holy Nimbus. It's excellent, but nobody really plays him enough. Kind of disappointing. Try him out though, I love him!

[Aeradom]

Hmm, I would say that the comment was a little ... slow? But as coincidence has it, I'm going back to my Knight deck and looking to improve upon it. And it just so happened that I actually did find out about Holy Nimbus, and yes, he is awesome!

So here is the new deck as I have it now:

Creatures: x26

4x Student of Warfare
4x Knight of the Holy Nimbus
4x Knight of the White Orchid
4x Mirran Crusader

4x Knight Exemplar

4x Hero of Bladehold
2x Odric, Master Tactician

Other Spells: x14
4x Honor of the Pure
4x Oblivion Ring
2x Path to Exile
4x Brave the Elements

Plains: x20

Some notes about the deck and reason for cards being in and out:

*I added in 4 White Orchids, which I've found to have substantially helped the mana situation through testing it. Though I'm not sure if I need 4 though... would be interested to hear opinions on this.


*I really like Odric's effect as a finisher, but it doesn't seem to be reliable enough for me to warrant 4 of him in the deck. However, when it happeneds, it's usually game at that point. Is 2 enough then? Or would you not even have him in the deck at all? And if not, then why?


*I really wanted to put Pariah in the main deck, combo it up with one of the indestructible knights, but for now I have it as a sideboard option. (Sideboard is incomplete and I haven't thought much on it yet). Is it main deck worthy?


*One of the big cards I took out was Kinsbaile Cavalier. I really like all my knights having double strike, but as a finisher, I think I prefer Odric more due to the fact that I a lowly 1/1 token can block my 6/6 double strike and no damage gets through. As always though, love to hear your thoughts.

I think that's all... I'm sure I'll remember something later on. Or someone will ask or bring up something... in any case, there you have it. Comment away! Oh and a special thanks to baprice for all the valuable advice he gave before.

[BlippyTheSlug]

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a need of imagination. Oscar Wilde Приглашаем в партнерскую программу!! Зарабатывай, не теряй времени.. Зарабатывать никогда не было так просто!. http://www.isralady.com

Apparently the moderation here needs work, too.

To get back on topic.

Knights is not a competitve archetype in Modern. It is indeed a good deck for casual and semi-casual play, and may even take a FNM here and there, depending on the local meta. But it is not competitive in the online, GP, PTQ, or PT arenas.

Some other choices for Knights:

Knight of the Reliquary (in combination with fetches) can be a powerful beater.

Speaking of going , Wilt-Leaf Liege.

AEther Vial is a very handy tool in Knight decks; it's not just for Merfolk & Eternal Command. I'd cut some of the the Prison Term and O-ring for a playset.

Elspeth, Knight-Errant. 'Nuff said.